A Double Standard at Stanford?

BY HANK REICHMAN Last week I posted to this blog a statement from Stanford University students, faculty and alums that called out the Stanford College Republicans (SCR) for instigating the widely publicized and controversial firing of a recent Stanford graduate by the Associated Press because of social media posts she had made that were pro-Palestinian. …

A Fundamental Double Standard

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following statement in support of fired Associated Press reporter Emily Wilder (Stanford ’20), signed by over 500 Stanford University students, faculty, staff and alums, was published May 24 in the Stanford Daily. A link to the petition form is here. To see the full list of signatories go here.  As…

The Delusion of Persecution

BY JOHN K. WILSON Heterodox Academy has issued a new survey of college students that is being touted as evidence that students fear controversial issues. But there are some critical questions that need to be asked.about it. The survey repeatedly asked the following style of question (about politics, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, the 2020…

The Death of Rush Limbaugh, and How He Transformed America

BY JOHN K. WILSON We are all living in the political and media worlds that Rush Limbaugh created. Limbaugh, who died this morning, transformed America in enormous ways, most of them negative. I harshly criticized Limbaugh in my book about him, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Rush Limbaugh’s Assault on Reason, which was published…

cover of Trump administration's 1776 Report with black background and red and white lettering

The 1776 Commission Makes a Declaration of Idiocy

BY JOHN K. WILSON On November 2, the day before he lost re-election (in a failed attempt to lure voters with his faux patriotism), Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the 1776 Commission, which worked quickly to produce a report before Joe Biden could take office and rescind this terrible idea and the terrible…

Threats, Hate Speech, and the Wisconsin Distortion

BY JOHN K. WILSON The headlines declared a common story about how repressive students are today: “Study Finds Majority Of College Students Think Government Should Punish ‘Hate Speech.’” “Nearly two-thirds of college students think government should have power to punish ‘hate speech’: survey.” “U. of Wisconsin students not big fans of free speech, according to…

Why We Need Free Expression, Now More Than Ever

BY JOHN K. WILSON The attack on the Capitol by Trump terrorists which led to five deaths was a shocking, horrifying crime. Trump and his supporters deserve the strongest condemnation for their role in fabricating a lie about the election results and then calling upon a mob to fight for a coup to overthrow the…

Complaints About Professor Highlight Differences Between Free Speech and Academic Freedom

BY HANK REICHMAN This past weekend the San Francisco Chronicle carried an article reporting that a white emeritus professor of economics at California State University, East Bay (CSUEB) — where I taught for twenty-five years before fully retiring in 2015 — “is teaching racist theories on intelligence.  Students and faculty want him out.”  A petition…